Racist Violence Up, Outrage Down, Bonn Says

Racist violence and membership in neo-Nazi gangs have hit a deadly new high in Germany despite a crackdown against the militant right, the government said Thursday.

The number of attacks by mostly young right-wing extremists jumped 74% last year, to 2,584, according to the Interior Ministry, and the upward trend continues this year, with about 1,300 incidents recorded in the first six months, roughly twice the rate for the comparable 1992 period.

But public outrage over the arson attacks, beatings and harassment has faded considerably since the nationwide protests and candlelight vigils last winter after a neo-Nazi firebombing left a Turkish grandmother and two young girls dead.

Interior Minister Manfred Kanther warned against a lapse into indifference, recalling how left-wing extremism was underestimated when it first began over two decades ago.

“Citizens must get into the act here. You can’t simply unload society’s job on the politicians,” Kanther told a news conference.

Although the government banned four neo-Nazi groups last year, the number of extreme right-wing groups rose by six to 82, and their membership swelled by over 5% to 41,900. Of these, 6,400 are considered “militant.”

The figures do not include around 800 militant neo-Nazis not linked to any group, the report said, nor do they count the 25,000 members claimed by the far-right Republikaner political party.

Seventeen people died in right-wing attacks last year--the highest death toll since right-wing violence began to surge after German unification three years ago. Another seven people have been killed since January.

Investigators say the killers generally are male skinheads between the ages of 16 and 30. More than 65% of all violent right-wing crime is committed by youths aged 20 and under.

Foreigners were the main target in 1992, but derelicts, anarchists and the handicapped also fell victim to violent right-wingers. Sixty-three Jewish memorials were vandalized.

The government in the past has linked the escalating violence and political tilt to the far right to post-unification disillusionment, a worsening recession and an unchecked flood of economic refugees, mainly from the former East Bloc.